


Infinity Plus One

by flibbertygigget



Series: The Other 51 [45]
Category: X-Men (Movieverse), X-Men: First Class (2011) - Fandom
Genre: Bad Physics and Math for the sake of the story, Fluff, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-08-07
Updated: 2016-08-07
Packaged: 2018-07-29 21:40:30
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 383
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7700746
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/flibbertygigget/pseuds/flibbertygigget
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>"Alex," Hank said in his Alex-is-being-slow-and-I-am-being-patient voice, "you can't just add one to it. That's not the way infinity works."</p>
            </blockquote>





	Infinity Plus One

Alex craned his neck over his boyfriend's shoulder, staring at the incomprehensible squiggles and numbers that poured down the page. He squinted and tilted his head.

"Why is that 8 sideways?" he said. Hank sighed, pushing his glasses up his blue snout.

"It's not an 8," he said. "It's a lemniscate." He took in Alex's confused look. "An infinity symbol."

"Oh," said Alex. He didn't really understand, but that was okay. His boyfriend was really smart; he was used to feeling like some dumb kid. "What are you doing with it?"

"I am attempting to create a formula to control the size and direction of Clarice's portals. Normally I'd prefer not to dive into theoretical physics, but the closest non-mutant phenomenon I can compare them to is the wormholes that may exist in black holes, which are theoretical in and of themselves. So now I am well and truly down the rabbit hole, so to speak, and only the fact that Clarice is here to provide proof of whatever formula ends up working is keeping me from giving this up entirely."

"Wow," Alex said. "So the sideways 8 means..."

"The lemniscate is there to show that the source of her portals has infinite density, thus creating the wormholes that she can control."

"So, like, is she makes a bigger portal the density is infinity plus one?"

"Alex," Hank said in his Alex-is-being-slow-and-I-am-being-patient voice, "you can't just add one to it. That's not the way infinity works."

"Why not?" Alex said grumpily. "It's just another number." Hank put his head in his hands and groaned.

"Because infinity is... well, infinite! It's not a number, exactly, not really. It's more of a concept used to convey the idea that numbers go on and on and on beyond what we can bother to define. It's like..." He searched for an appropriate comparison. "It's like forever. When you say that you'll do something or think something or love someone forever, you don't literally mean that. You simply mean until you die, or you get bored, or - or whatever." Hank was fiddling with his glasses again. 

"When I say forever, I mean forever," Alex said. "Hey, Hank, do you love me?" Hank glanced at the formulas.

"Infinitely," he said. Alex smirked.

"Well, I love you infinity plus one."


End file.
